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So this past weekend I hosted a baby shower for a couple of friends. It was actually the first baby shower I’ve hosted in my life. I took it very seriously. We booked the date in August and I started ordering decorations and supplies and planning things down to the tee. If you’d like to see the entire Pinterest board, just click here.

What I want to share with you today is one of the recipes from the party that turned out to be a huge hit: sweet and spicy cranberry meatballs. I have never seen a pot of meatballs completely disappear, but the slow cooker was filled with about 3 pounds of meatballs, and not a single one was left. Not one!

I’ve been to parties where they served slow cookers full of meatballs. Everyone brags about the fact that the secret ingredient in them is grape jelly. And they are good, I’ll give you that. But this recipe? Oh it is soooo much better than those! If you’re a grape jelly meatball fan, please give this one a try.

The main base is whole cranberry sauce. Then you add in some ketchup, hoisin sauce, and an assortment of spices. The end result is a very sweet, tangy concoction that apparently cannot be resisted.

Now before I post the recipe, I have a secret to confess: I used store-bought meatballs. The recipe has you make your own, but I didn’t have time so I went to the local warehouse club and bought a big bag of “Italian style” meatballs. I wasn’t too sure how those would go with this sweet and tangy sauce, but now I know how they go–fast. They go very fast.

Next time, I hope to make the meatballs from scratch, but just know that you can get away with using a good quality store bought meatball!

Here are the ingredients:

Meatballs

2poundsground beef

22saltine crackerscrushed

1/3cupdry minced onion

2eggsbeaten

1/2cupmilk

2teaspoonsground ginger

1teaspoonsalt

1/4teaspoonpepper

2teaspoongarlic powder

Sweet and Spicy Cranberry Sauce

1can whole cranberry sauce14 oz. can

1/4cupquality hoisin saucelike Kikkoman or Lee Kum Kee

1/4cupketchup

2tablespoonsred wine vinegar

2tablespoonssoy sauce

2tablespoonsFranks Buffalo Hot WINGS Sauceto taste*

1teaspoongarlic powder

1/2teaspoonground ginger

2tablespoonsbrown sugar

And here are the instructions:

Preheat oven to 400F degrees. Place a baking rack on top of a baking sheet. Set aside. (If you don’t have a baking rack, line baking sheet with parchment paper.)

In a large bowl, combine all of the meatball ingredients, mix until well combined. Roll meat mixture into desired meatball size**. Place meatballs onto prepared baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Meanwhile, add all of the Sweet and Spicy Cranberry Sauce ingredients starting with just 2 teaspoons hot wings sauce to a bowl and mix to combine. You can add more hot sauce to taste at the end of cooking.

Line the bottom of your slow cooker with meatballs, then a layer of Sweet and Spicy Cranberry Sauce, then the remaining meatballs followed by the remaining. Sauce. Gently stir meatballs an hour after cooking.

Cover and cook on low heat for 2 hours. Taste and stir in additional hot wings sauce (I use a total of 2 tablespoons which is spicy) Keep warm until serving.

Again, as I mentioned, I didn’t make the meatballs by hand. I just dumped all the ingredients in on top of frozen meatballs and stirred occasionally as they cooked. No worries about “layering” your meatballs or mixing the sauce in a separate bowl. Why dirty up a bowl you’ll have to wash when it’s all going to combine in the slow cooker anyway? Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Oh, one more thing. The photograph above shows the meatballs on toothpicks. Don’t do that. They are best served hot, and that means straight out of the slow cooker. It’s not as elegant of a look, but we must preserve food quality over appearances, right? So put the slow cooker out on the table with a big spoon in it and be prepared to watch meatballs disappear!